Marine Conservation Society urges people in Wales to sign up to a war on waste

Charity has launched petition to tackle food and drink litter on beaches

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is asking people in Wales to get behind its call for a Deposit Return System (DRS) on bottles and drinks containers and for takeaway containers to be fully compostable.

The call comes after MCS beach litter data from Wales showed a steady rise in the number of caps, lids and glass bottles found on Welsh beaches in the last five years, as well as an increase in the number of polystyrene and plastic takeaway food containers.

In Scotland, calls for a DRS are really gathering momentum with 60 MSPs already signed up to a motion which welcomes the campaigns for a deposit return system and calls for a quick decision to be made.

Dr Sue Kinsey is the MCS Technical Specialist: “We're asking the Welsh Assembly to urge the Welsh Government to tackle the problem of bottles, cans and takeaway containers on our beaches. Deposit return systems - where people can return their bottles and cans and get their deposit back - have been known to increase high quality recycling levels to over 90% in other parts of the world and decrease littering. Imagine that in Wales! Plus, if all takeaway containers were fully compostable in Wales, there would be a really positive impact on litter levels across Welsh beaches.”

MCS is hoping people who live in Wales will sign the petition, hosted on the National Assembly for Wales website.

Nowadays fast food waste is everywhere so we tend to not even notice it anymore says Dr Kinsey. “People throw containers away, without realising that they can remain in the environment for hundreds of years. That’s why we want people to support our petition to reduce this type of litter either by making better use of the material or if it does become litter being sure it will compost down.”

The charity is hoping to get at least 5,000 signatures which will trigger a debate at the Welsh Assembly. The petition closes midday on 18th April. You can sign up here - bit.ly/2mXApZq